Cuomo's MTA Pick Faces Hurdles

ENLARGE

Thomas Prendergast testifies at a state Senate committee hearing in December 2012.
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By

Ted Mann

Updated April 12, 2013 9:10 p.m. ET

Now that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has answered the 102-day-old question of who will run the nation's largest transit system—tapping on Friday the Metropolitan Transportation Authority veteran Thomas Prendergast as chairman—the question turns to what will come next for the cash-strapped agency.

Mr. Prendergast rises to the top job from within the MTA's upper ranks, where he has served most recently as chief of New York City subways and buses and earned acclaim as the steady-handed administrator who helped quickly revive the damaged system in the wake of superstorm Sandy last year.

Once confirmed by the state Senate, however, Mr. Prendergast will begin to grapple with even more intractable challenges facing a $13 billion state agency that serves an average of 8.5 million daily riders. He will be tasked with sealing a labor agreement with the MTA's largest union and securing financing for a five-year capital spending plan—all while continuing to repair lingering wreckage from Sandy's floodwaters.

"From the track bed to the budget to modernizing our system for the 21st century, I can't imagine anyone having a better understanding of how the region's vast system operates and the challenges that it faces," Mr. Cuomo said of his nominee.

The choice of Mr. Prendergast, currently also serving as the MTA's interim executive director, marks a bid for continuity in Mr. Cuomo's second attempt at putting a personal stamp on the MTA. The last chairman, Joseph Lhota, departed at the end of 2012 after less than a year to run for New York City mayor. Mr. Lhota's predecessor, Jay Walder, lasted for just about two years.

The nomination drew praise from business groups and transportation advocates, many of whom had been privately urging Mr. Prendergast's selection.

"What everyone has come to realize is that Tom has certainly risen to the occasion," said Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University, before the appointment was announced. "He knows what the priorities are. He doesn't have to be briefed to understand what needs to be done."

Even the union that reliably tangles with MTA leaders had kind words for Mr. Prendergast. "He knows the work we do," said John Samuelsen, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, of the man he will face across the table in contract negotiations.

The incoming chairman, he said, "knows what it's like for a track worker to swing a hammer for eight hours in a tunnel in the heat."

The union leader dubbed Mr. Prendergast "the best possible choice."

In a four-decade transit career in the U.S. and Canada, Mr. Prendergast has run commuter railroads and rapid-transit lines, including a suburban train line and an urban subway-and-bus network inside the MTA.

"I know of no one who cares more about customers and riders, as well as having a keen understanding of the entire system," Mr. Lhota said. "I can't think of anybody better prepared."

The long wait for a new chairman after Mr. Lhota's surprise departure had raised some eyebrows among transit observers. Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer has served as acting chairman of the board of directors during that span. The delay also meant double duty for Mr. Prendergast, who took on two titles afterward.

The need to choose a new chairman coincided with a series of other pressing priorities for Mr. Cuomo.

An aide to the Democratic governor said the administration has been focused above all in recent months on the passage of a new state budget and tougher gun-control laws in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. Both the state government and the MTA have also been consumed by bureaucratic challenges related to Sandy, including lobbying for federal aid.

Mr. Prendergast and his team won particular praise for successful planning ahead of Sandy, which helped the MTA escape some of the more severe damage to trains and equipment that afflicted other regional transportation systems. Much of the MTA's ability to rebound derived from a plan that moved sensitive electronics and trains themselves out of the path of floodwaters—a plan that came about, in part, from experiences during Hurricane Irene the previous year.

Transit experts have praised Mr. Prendergast's work over the past three months, saying he would be the right choice to lead the agency given his long years in the field and extensive knowledge of the bureaucracy's moving parts.

Mr. Prendergast began his career in 1975 at the Chicago Transit Authority, Mr. Cuomo's office said, before moving to Washington and then to New York in 1982 as director of system safety for the New York City Transit Authority.

During his career in New York, he has held supervisory roles in the subway organization and served as president of the Long Island Rail Road.

Mr. Prendergast departed for the private sector in 2000, the governor's office said, eventually becoming chief executive of the TransLink system in Vancouver, Canada, before being hired back by the MTA in 2009 to lead the transit division.

MTA observers on Friday suggested Mr. Prendergast would be well-suited to lead an agency coping with historically high ridership, a backlog of repair work and no ready source of new funds to pay the bills.

"From our perspective, the challenges for the MTA going forward are about revenue—finding sources to fund the capital plan," said Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Mr. Prendergast will have to make decisions about expansion—including ongoing megaprojects like the Second Avenue subway—while also "getting the most out of the system we have," said Richard Barone, director of transportation programs for the Regional Plan Association.

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